Greg Sterling

Posts by Greg Sterling

April 24, 2019

Google SERP Survey: Younger Users Rely on Snippets, Rich Answers More

A new survey from Path Interactive, (n=1,400 mostly US adults), published on the Moz blog, explored how users interact today with various features of the Google SERP. The TL;DR version is: most user attention and clicks still focus on organic results, but features such as snippets and the Knowledge Panel are causing more zero-click results, especially among younger users. There are…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 24, 2019

Kohl’s 1,100 Stores Become Amazon ‘Return Centers’

Yesterday traditional retailer Kohl’s said it will accept returns for Amazon products at all of its stores. The policy will commence in July. The company has more than 1,100 retail locations in the US. Amazon and Kohl’s have had a partnership since 2017 and the latter has been selling selected Amazon products in some of its stores. The…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 22, 2019

Webinar: Using Multi-Touch Attribution for Better Client Retention

Despite all the advances in technology over the past several years, most marketers — especially those working with SMBs — are still using a “last touch” attribution model. Multi-touch attribution has been discussed for years but its complexity, data challenges and potential cost (if you use a vendor) inhibit people from pursuing it. Yet we all…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 16, 2019

ThriveHive Data Suggests Emerging GMB Best Practices, Opportunities

Yelp and Google have lots of internal data about what kinds of local business content consumers engage with. The information is not widely circulated, though Yelp has occasionally exposed it and has presented it at LSA’s digital marketing bootcamps for small businesses (SMBs). For its part, Google hasn’t offered much discussion of GMB profile best practices (beyond this). Some…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 5, 2019

Survey: 93% Want Marketers to Ask Permission to Use Personal Data

A new survey out from NBC and the Wall Street Journal reflects the ambivalence Americans feel about the tech industry and its data-for-access business model. The findings are discussed in two parallel pieces: “Americans give social media a clear thumbs-down” (NBC) and the even more strident “Americans Hate Social Media but Can’t Give It Up” (WSJ). When asked which of…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 4, 2019

Are We Starting to Approach Peak E-Commerce?

Since the beginning of the internet, pundits have predicted that e-commerce will take over nearly every shopping and retail category. According to US government data, last year e-commerce captured a roughly $513 billion share of retail spending. That’s impressive until you recognize that total retail spending was more than $5.3 trillion in 2018. Accordingly, e-commerce is hovering at ~10% of…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 3, 2019

Social Wins, Paid-Search and Display Lose in SMB Marketing Survey

BrandMuscle has released the 5th edition of its “State of Local Marketing” report (registration required). The report is dense and covers a range of small business marketing topics. It also has an extensive discussion of Co-Op/MDF issues. We’ll tackle the findings in multiple posts. At the highest level the report finds that a large majority…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

March 19, 2019

Survey: 60% Not That Into Chatbots but 40% Really Like Them

There are numerous consumer surveys about chatbots that argue people prefer interacting with them for certain tasks. Others come out the opposite way. The reality is somewhere in-between and fairly well captured in new survey data from Uberall. The survey of roughly 1,000 US adults asked about their level of interest in interacting with bots from “major brands”: 40% were…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

March 18, 2019

Survey: Only 36% of SMBs Have an ‘SEO Strategy’

Despite the waning visibility of organic content, SEO is arguably more important than ever. The vast majority of search clicks occur on organic links/content. Yet, according to a survey from Clutch, only 36% of small businesses (SMBs) have an SEO strategy — though an additional 38% say they plan to in the future. Clutch uses the SBA’s…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

March 13, 2019

Study: Online + Offline Media Delivers Better ROI than Either Alone

For brands, retailers and small businesses that fulfill offline or through stores, traditional media is often more trusted but digital marketing offers more precision and “accountability.” However, there’s also fraud and waste in digital. A new “ROI Genome” report from Analytic Partners discusses, among other findings, the relative ROI of online and offline advertising. The study…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling